Training Opportunities in the PREP Program

The Massachusetts Mental Health Center (MMHC) is a unique collaboration between the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and Harvard Medical School Public Psychiatry Division of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. It is both a state mental health facility and a center of excellence in academic psychiatry, combining public service with outstanding clinical and research programs. The mission of MMHC is to provide and ensure access to a network of effective, efficient and culturally sensitive clinical and rehabilitative services for DMH eligible clients with mental illness. This mission is strengthened by academic affiliations with Harvard Medical School which provide MMHC the opportunity to train future practitioners, as well as to conduct in-depth research into the treatment and prevention of serious mental illness. The shared endeavors provide high quality therapies and innovative treatment approaches to all clients.

The PREP program at MMHC has been providing cutting edge treatment to young adults with psychosis and their families for more than 10 years. Through the use of recovery-focused individual, group, and family treatment, PREP works with young adults experiencing psychosis to attenuate symptoms, preserve functioning, and counteract accompanying neuropsychological deficits, thus preventing long-term disability. PREP draws on the research and clinical literature and integrates strategies from both recovery-focused and CBT treatments to intervene early in the course of psychosis. In Boston, PREP is unique in having as its primary goal early intervention with young people from disenfranchised neighborhoods or economically disadvantaged circumstances, the population traditionally served by MMHC. The intended outcome of the PREP program is to help young people remain in the mainstream of society with work, school, and family life and to turn their course of illness away from the lost social roles and repeated hospitalizations that have historically attended schizophrenia.

The PREP program offers opportunities for training for psychiatry, psychology, social work, and counseling students.